


Christmas Challenge

by icandrawamoth



Series: Fic Advent 2017 [13]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: (sort of), Advent Calendar, Advent Challenge, Advent Challenge 2017, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Christmas, Friendship, Gen, Implied Wes Janson/Derek "Hobbie" Klivian, Reincarnation, Swordfighting, Traditions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 11:43:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13053324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: Wes and Hobbie invite Luke to spend Christmas day with them and introduce him to a playfully violent family tradition.





	Christmas Challenge

**Author's Note:**

> For Advent Challenge bingo square "a new tradition." I was googling around for interesting Christmas traditions as inspiration, stumbled upon wrapping paper tube swordfighting, and I knew I had to have that in this verse.

“I'm not sure this is a good idea,” Hobbie cautions.

“All of my ideas are good ones,” Wes shushes him, but truth be told, he's not above a tiny bit of concern himself. He's trying to help, but there's always a chance it'll go the other way and just make things worse.

It's Christmas morning, and they're standing just inside their bedroom door, peering out into the living room where Luke sleeps on the couch. Having lost both his aunt and uncle that year, he hadn't had anywhere to go for Christmas, so they'd taken pity and invited him to spend the day with them. He'd tried to hide his reaction when he accepted, but it had been clear how much the gesture meant.

Now, Wes reasserts his grip on the three objects in his hand, presses one to Hobbie and marches into the room. He flicks on the light and walks over to Luke. “Up and at 'em, sunshine!” he singsongs as he shoves at the sleeping man none-too-gently.

Luke groans and sits up, rubbing his eyes. “Wha-?”

“Merry Christmas!” Wes tells him cheerfully. “Prepare to fight.” He swings down with the weapon in his hand – an empty wrapping paper tub – and clubs Luke across the head.

“Wes! Ouch!” Luke glares up at him, rubbing the spot.

Wes only grins at him. “Growing up, wrapping paper tube fights were a tradition in my family,” he explains. “And considering you're here, you're part of it now, too. Winner gets to open the first present.”

He holds out the tube he's designed especially for Luke and holds his breath as his friend looks it over. At one end, about a quarter of the brown tube has been colored silver, while the rest is streaked with green. A parody of his lightsaber.

Luke looks up, his expression unreadable for a long moment, and an apology is on the tip of Wes's tongue when Luke suddenly grins and _thwaps_ him bodily. “You left yourself unguarded,” he says with a devilish grin as he levers himself off the ouch. “If this were real, you'd be dead.”

“I wasn't ready!” Wes protests, but he's laughing now, swinging at Luke again, who brings his “lightsaber” up to block. Then Hobbie is joining them, too, his own tube swinging into the action, bopping first Wes, then Luke.

They go at each other for who can say how long, a frenzied whirl of swings and parries, slashes and stabs. At one point, an overly enthusiastic blow nicks the Christmas tree, and Hobbie yelps as he dives to save it from toppling over and only just manages to right it in time.

“Aha!” Wes yells as he's still prone, stabbing him in the middle of the back. “You're out!”

Hobbie sticks his tongue out at him before relenting, making an overly dramatic show of dying and laying there under on the tree skirt as Wes turns to face down Luke.

“Do your worst, Jedi,” he intones, holding his tube before him and stalking forward.

There's a spark in Luke's eyes as he meets him, his own “weapon” in a defensive position that's different from Wes's playful stance – it has to be a real thing, remembered from his past. Wes dives in with a slashing blow, and Luke parries easily, swiping the blade aside and tapping his “blade” to Wes's neck.

“You're finished,” he says all too calmly, but he's grinning.

“No fair, you have experience,” Wes mutters as he pushes Luke's blade away.

Luke only shrugs. “Not my fault you decided to pick a sword fight with a Jedi.”

“Former Jedi.”

A pause. “Yeah, you're right.”

“Hey, Luke-”

“It's fine.” Luke waves him off, sitting on the couch and dropping the wrapping paper tube at his feet. “It's just weird, you know?”

“You miss it,” Hobbie says, sitting up from his position under the tree.

“I do. It was so much a part of me back then, and now.” Luke spreads his hands, a frustrated look on his face. “It's like, not being able to feel the Force, nothing here is quite real. Does that make sense?”

“Nope!” Wes drops down next to him, throwing an arm around his friend's shoulders. “But I wouldn't expect it to, for us, since we never had it to begin with.”

Luke's expression twists a little like that maybe wasn't quite the right thing to say.

“You think you'll find someone else one day?” Hobbie asks soothingly as he joins them. “I mean, if we're here, your other Jedi have to be, too, right?”

“I don't know,” Luke sighs. He rubs at his temples. “So much of this still doesn't make sense.”

“Well, today isn't the day we're going to figure it out,” Wes decides for them. “It's _Christmas_.” He bobs the other two on the head lightly with the tube he still holds in his hand. “No more bummers, okay?”

Luke puts on a smile. “Whatever you say, Wes. And I believe you did say I get the first present?”


End file.
